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Top And Bottom Performer Reporting

03 Oct 2011

This guidance describes how to be ready to talk with your boss about your team.

Most managers overestimate how much their boss knows about their directs. That's true for most of us - we think the people around us know far more about what we're thinking about than they actually do.

But is this a good or bad thing when it comes to what our boss knows about our team? For the most part, it's okay that your boss doesn't know a lot about your directs. If your boss has 5-8 to maybe even 10 directs, she's probably just keeping up with you and your peers. If you and each of your peers have 5-7 directs, think about it. Your boss has between 30 and 50 people to keep track of.

Which is to say, she's not doing it.

But what are we to do? There are several things that an effective manager does to make sure their team members are being given appropriate attention. We'll talk about some simple quarterly updates for everyone in a different show. But there's something more urgent that we recommend you be ready to discuss.